Well, yesterday I bought WoW. I did this for the following reasons:

  • It is the closest competitor to EQ2 and gets constant press

  • Oftentimes when I speak to people, they play WoW but not EQ2

  • The reviews rave about how it is more about fun and less about lifestyle

Let’s face it, EQ2 is a hardcore game no matter how casual you think you are. It’s about quests, items, loot, epic zones and raids. Sure, it’s easy to just play and have a blast, and that’s what I like about it. EQ2 is a seriously fun game that hasn’t felt like a grind since the first day I played it (well, unless you count tradeskills, that’s a total grind).

I’m only a level 4 mage at the moment, but I find WoW to be interesting, not in how it is better or worse than EQ2, but in how it is different. Moreso, I find that so very many things are indeed the same between the two games it’s hard to believe they didn’t raid each others design notes. The obvious “rest” vs. “vitality” XP bonus is just one easy topic to point out. In fact, some of the things in WoW were there first and were added to EQ2 in late beta or early after release.

I’ll continue to comment now and then about WoW, but it’s my backup game to play while crafting. I don’t think I’ll take it seriously and maybe not even past the first 30 days, but I figured only a fool bashes what he hasn’t experienced.